Qualcomm, the company behind the S4 processor that so many US devices are receiving as consolation prizes in exchange for LTE, has announced that it will be releasing its own SDK for Snapdragon processors. The SDK will initially support the S4, and continue to support future processors as they're released, supporting multiple tiers of hardware.

The company touts the SDK as enabling developers to more tightly integrate their apps with Qualcomm hardware, as well as enabling access to more powerful hardware features, like so:

facial processing, such as blink and smile detection, which makes it easier to take better pictures of people in groups;

burst capture, which leverages zero shutter lag to photograph a stream of images at once to select the best shot;

indoor location that enables apps to continue providing accurate location information even when the user is indoors.

Of course, SDKs for specific hardware platforms are a double-edged sword. If NVIDIA's recent pushes with Tegra development have taught us anything, it's that selective focus on hardware can certainly lead to much better apps, but at the cost of leaving other platforms out in the cold. Hopefully Qualcomm's new SDK will make things easier on developers who want to support the S4 and future Snapdragons.